An active matrix liquid crystal display uses a thin film transistor as a switch element so as to display an image. Due to its features such as being thin, light and of low power consumption, the active matrix liquid crystal display has been widely used in such display devices as computer monitors, notebook computers, portable terminals and wall-mounted TVs.
Generally, a liquid crystal display includes a liquid crystal display panel, a plurality of source drivers (also called source driving integrated circuits) for providing data signals and clock control signals to data lines of the liquid crystal display panel, and a clock controller for controlling the source drivers.
For an existing liquid crystal display, usually digital video data from an external signal source, such as the data signals and the clock control signals, is input into the clock controller via an interface, then the data signals and the clock control signals are transmitted to the source drivers by the clock controller via such an interface as miniature low voltage differential signal (mini-LVDS) interface, and finally the received data signals and the clock control signals are transmitted by the source drivers to the data lines, so as to display the image.
The clock controller transmits the data signals and the clock control signals to the source drivers via the mini-LVDS interface. Because the mini-LVDS interface transmits the clock control signals and the data signals in the form of a pair of differential signals with different phases, at least 14 signal lines are required to be arranged between the clock controller and the respective source drivers. As shown in FIG. 1, there are seven pairs of signal lines between the clock controller 01 and the respective source drivers 02. Among these signal lines, six pairs of signal lines, i.e., ML0 to ML5, are used to transmit the data signals, while the pair of signal lines, i.e., CLK0, is used to transmit the clock control signals. As a result, a large region is required to be provided on a printing circuit board (PCB) between the clock controller and the source drivers so that these signal lines can be arranged thereon.
Hence, there is an urgent need for a novel method for transmitting data between the clock controller and the source drivers.